Handmade Holidays Gift Ideas

January 16, 2014

Did you have handmade holidays? I’m sharing some gifts I made this last year. I always seem to procrastinate and wait until the last 2-3 weeks before Christmas to make my handmade gifts. Maybe it’s not too early to start planning and making for this year! I’ve included links to the recipe, patterns, and some tutorials I used.

Have you had homemade caramels before? If you haven’t, you are missing out! I used a sea salt caramel recipe from Liddabit Sweets. They do take awhile to make, but I think it was worth it! They recommend using a vanilla bean. I hadn’t cooked with a real vanilla bean before! I think it definitely adds something extra special!

I made my momma an ironing board cover. This is a pretty simple project. How fun to pick any fabric you want to spruce up an ironing board! The 36th Avenue has a great tutorial.

I have a stockpile of wool sweaters that I’ve gotten for cheap at thrift stores that have been waiting for projects. I felted them and made a couple pairs of mittens. They are lined with fleece and oh so cozy! I used the Smitten pattern and tutorial by The Renegade Seamstress. One note about the pattern; I thought it was a little on the small side. If you are making them for someone with larger hands you may need to enlarge the pattern.

Want to give money in a fun way? For this gift, I folded various bills into chocolate/candy type shapes and put into a tin I had gotten at a rummage sale awhile ago. The mini cupcake liners are attached to the bottom of the tin with some double-sided tape. Here are a couple of the folding patterns I used:

The front of this pillow was made from an extra large t-shirt that I had gotten for free at an event. Since the t-shirt material is a little tricky to work with I used wonder under to iron it on to a more sturdy white fabric. The whole pillow is made like a basic envelope pillow. Freshly Pieced has a great basic pillow tutorial.

More felted wool! I made these slippers for my momma. They’re lined with fleece and the bottom is made with leather from a shirt I got at a thrift store. I kind of made up my own pattern for this, but looked at a lot of other patterns and tutorials out there. I think this pattern from Martha Stewart is the closest to what I used. Differences are though that I lined them, did the seams on the inside, and added the cuff. The cuff was done in the same way that the mitten tutorial above explains it.

Did you make or receive any homemade gifts? I’d love to hear about it! Also, let me know if you have questions about the projects above!